ESCONDIDO  Aiming to enliven downtown Escondido with college students focused on entertainment careers, City Council members loosened zoning rules Wednesday to allow a small Catholic university to take over nearly an entire block.

John Paul the Great University and its 140 students would boost downtown businesses, strengthen Escondido’s reputation and help make the local workforce more educated, council members said.

The campus could also be the first step toward establishing an entertainment industry cluster in Escondido, they said. The proposed campus is just two blocks from the California Center for the Arts.

The university, now located in Scripps Ranch, plans to lease the 31,000-square-foot H. Johnson building at Second Avenue and Broadway, lease the AmericaWest Bank building at Maple Street and Grand Avenue, and buy the 24,000-square-foot Mingei museum on the same corner.

Allowing a university veers from the city’s goal of populating downtown with restaurants, night clubs and upscale shops. But the council, which voted 4-1 in favor of the proposal, said a change in course was warranted.

“I understand this is not what we envisioned,” Councilman John Masson said. “But this will bring an infusion of people to downtown.”

Mayor Sam Abed said he was initially skeptical, but that he became supportive based on the city’s continual failures to improve downtown and Escondido’s need for more educated workers.

Councilman Ed Gallo was the lone “no” vote.

He said the university would fit better near Escondido’s Palomar College campus in East Valley, where the city has proposed an education “cluster,” or on an empty 5-acre lot at Ash Street and Washington Avenue where High Tech High once proposed a campus.

Gallo also balked at the university’s plan to use 22 apartments in the upscale Latitude 33 apartment complex as student housing.

“Are we going to turn Latitude 33 into a college dormitory?” he asked, suggesting that young people would change the tenor of the complex in a negative way.

Last month, Escondido’s Planning Commission voted against the zoning change, which adds colleges and universities to the list of permitted businesses on the first floor of buildings on Grand Avenue.

Members of the commission primarily expressed concerns about parking problems.

At a community meeting last Friday, university officials said the H. Johnson building’s 150 parking spots would be more than enough to accommodate the university’s students and roughly 25 employees.

City officials said specific parking regulations for the university would be crafted later. On Wednesday, council members approved only a zoning change, not the university’s proposal for a campus.

The university’s proposal has been popular with downtown merchants and nearby residents.

Carol Rea, a merchant who also lives a few block south of downtown in Old Escondido, said John Paul the Great would be unusually well-suited for the area.

“I understand that not just any school would be appropriate,” she said. “Their focus on entertainment is appealing.”

University officials said they plan to create a TV studio in the Mingei site on the corner of Maple and Grand.

Derry Connolly, president and founder of the university, told council members Wednesday that he was attracted by the ambience of downtown and the proximity of the arts center.

Don Zech, a commercial broker helping the university secure property, said the proposal would follow the lead of many other cities trying to bolster their downtowns.

“Every popular downtown has a university, a community college or a specialty college,” he said.

Zech also noted that university students often launch companies while in school, and that Escondido might become home to such businesses. Examples include Google and Chipotle, he said.

University officials have said they could start holding classes in Escondido as early as this spring.

Based on projected enrollment growth, they said the new Escondido campus would be large enough for at least a decade. When they hit capacity, university officials said they would either have to expand in downtown or find another site in Escondido or elsewhere.